It's the Children!

A little boy, born without legs and only one very small arm ... his mother here ... illegally, seeking care for her son.

I could't take my eyes off this little boy ... held so sweetly by his mother ... along with other mothers and their children ... on the run, on the move, searching, to do what any parent does: seek the welfare of our children.

I looked at the little boy ... innocent ... holding up his little stub of an arm pointing at something, and tears welled up ...

And how many children are like him ... and his parents ... and families seeking life ... fleeing untold cartel violence in their homelands ... living every day with gang extortion ... death close at hand?

In the face of great danger, they seek the welfare of their children.

And I wonder about America.

What risks are we willing to take for the children?

I fear that some in our ranks have blown out of proportion the "danger" of immigrants, playing upon irrational fear, crafting "alternative facts," crafting a narrative of lies and half-truths, in order to further their own nefarious political goals, which is mostly about money and power.

And so the heart of American has hardened, and it seems, growing harder every hour.

In some kind of a mindless quest of absolute safety ... and as is the case of any mindless obsession dealing with self-preservation at all costs, the heart grows cruel and callous.

We are forgetting some very important realities:

1) There is no such thing as absolute safety.
2) A nation that fears is a nation that is losing its mind and heart.
3) A nation that turns away from the children is a nation choosing blindness.
4) A nation that chooses fear chooses insanity.

As a Christian, I'm clear: Love entails risk.

When Jesus moved south toward Jerusalem, he was warned repeatedly of the danger facing him. But love entrails risk.

The Apostle Paul knew all about risk, and so did the Prophets.

But love entails risk.

At the risk of losing our humanity, we choose fear.

At the hope of gaining our humanity, we choose love, and whatever risks love entails.

And for every immigrant who might pose a threat (very low), love can open the door to thousands of children, their families, and to the world.

And in so opening the doors, so the heart leaps for joy.

And we'll be the stronger for it.

Proud to be a Liberal

A good FB friend asked me what I mean by the world liberal ... in terms of the root meaning, as in liberal education or in terms of the progressive agenda these days in politics.

Here's my response - quick and dirty:

Hi John ... I think both ... a freedom to think broadly, experimentally - but clearly, for me, the term represents the best in America's political story - that which gave us the National Parks and child labor laws; that which abolished slavery and established civil rights for people of color and women. The liberal spirit busted the trusts under Teddy Roosevelt, gave us Social Security under FDR and promoted unions to protect the working class and build the middle class. John, you ask good questions: For the church, a place of free inquiry because of a solid faith, not in spite of it, with less emphasis on "winning souls" and a lot more emphasis on living the faith, and letting God do the winning through our witness (my Calvinism is showing!). I think the struggle today for Gay Rights is akin to the struggle for civil rights and women's suffrage and ordination. Why the church tends to be last in line on so many of these things astounds me. We talk of heaven, but seemingly close our eyes to the hell in which so many millions are forced to live their days. Socially, a safe society - where aliens have an easier time of it, where employers are penalized for illegal hiring rather than gathering up these poor families late at night and deporting them. We have to recover our manufacturing basis - if there were a crisis and the shipping lanes disrupted, we couldn't make our own refrigerators anymore. We need to sever the link between employment and health care and put it where it belongs - in government. We need a major public transportation effort to curb our fuel usage and rebuild our cities around it rather than freeways (and I live in LA) We have to learn how to curb our spending, learn to live with less, pay more for what we have to support our middle class and keep jobs here in America. Our corporations have to be leashed; and super-wealth taxed! Junk food and corn syrup banned! Feed McDonald's executives their own crap three times a day for a month, take away their cars and make them use public transportation. Oh well, you asked ... a lot of random thoughts. John, tell me more about your vision, for the church and for our society.